Latvala’s efforts deflated by puncture

Front left wheel gave up on Jari-Matti Latvala 8 kilometers into the stage 15 and with the time lost Finn declared the bid to catch the leading two Citroëns over.

“It’s game over in trying to catch two leaders. I need to concentrate and make sure we can take third position. I didn’t hit anything in particular, just one rock in the ground, I went same way over it in the morning but this time I was probably a bit faster and the wheel broke, not the tire. I felt it immediately, but we decided to go all the way to the end”, said Latvala.

Latvala’s demise means he dropped behind Petter Solberg, who in turn managed to be very fast and move in front of Mads Ostberg and is currently third overall.

Without any problem and with trademark ease Sebastien Loeb clocked best time through special stage 15 and increased lead to Mikko Hirvonen by another few seconds. Three and a half seconds to be more precise to what now totals 21.7 seconds.

“Latvala managed to drive so long with broken wheel and tire? Great, I know now I don’t need to stop if we have a puncture. These tires are strong”, joked Loeb at the stage end.